How to make chef-grade tacos, according to a top Mexican golf club’s chef
Ribeye tacos are a favorite at Chef Nava’s golf club in Cabo San Lucas.
Courtesy of Quivira Golf Club
Welcome to clubhouse eats, where we celebrate the most delicious food and drink in the game. I hope you brought an appetite with you.
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Last Tuesday was National Taco Day, a fact that only matters to diners docile enough to need to be told what to eat and when.
For the rest of us, every day can be taco day. This is how Carlos Arriaga Nava sees it. He’s the chef at Quivira Golf Club in Cabo San Lucas, where ribeye tacos are very popular. Arriaga Nava serves them at the Quivira Steakhouse and at two of four comfort stations on the course.
Not that the chef’s taco repertoire is limited to red meat.
“In Mexico, we pack almost everything in tacos,” says Arriaga Nava.
You can do the same at home. Just keep these taco prep rules in mind.
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1. Choose your tortillas
In Mexico, corn tortillas are people’s top choice, says Arriaga Nava; they are the most common. But less so in the north, where flour tortillas are also common. When it’s your turn to make tacos, let your personal preference guide you. Just no crispy tacos with a hard shell, please, says Arriaga Nava. At least not if you want to call them “tacos”. Those are different.
2. Keeps you warm and soft
Warm tortillas. This is the right way. The trick is not to let them dry out. Arriaga Nava likes to warm them up Strange, a traditional flat iron pan. But if that’s not an option for you, a reliable method is to wrap them in foil and place them in a preheated 300 degree oven for 10 minutes, then wrap them in a kitchen towel until ready to serve. Spray the tortillas lightly with water before heating them to keep them steamy and soft.
3. The right toppings
The first garnish rule is that almost anything goes. Feel free to experiment until you find the combinations that please your taste buds. For ribeye tacos, says Arriaga Nava, you can’t go wrong with radish and avocado. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can add frijoles puercos — Fried beans with lard. For the most tender ribeye possible, slice thinly against the grain or fibers of the meat.
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4. Make your own tortillas
Homemade is always better, says Arriaga Nava. And they’re not difficult to make, provided you have nixtamalized flour (don’t panic — that’s just a fancy word for a traditional process of soaking and cooking corn in lime water.) You can find nixtamalized corn flour at many supermarkets and specialty stores.
Here is the Arriaga Nava recipe:
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour and 2 cups of water with 70 grams (about 1/3 cup) of lard and knead until you have an even mixture.
Roll the dough into balls. Working one at a time, sandwich each ball of dough between two sheets of cling film and flatten. Cook each tortilla on both sides on one Strange. If you don’t have one Strangea cast iron skillet will do.
